Junior Chris Wade is the owner of this week’s Beard of the Week. He is the first recipient of this honor. Here is what he has to say about myriad affairs beard-related.

Chris Wade

Background: Chris Wade has had a beard off and on since his senior year in high school. He usually goes a couple of months growing it out and then shaves it down to nothing and starts over again. This past summer, Wade sported what he likes to call the “Urban Amish,” or Abe Lincoln beard, but has since let it all grow back in.

On beards: “Beards are really hot these days. You see more people growing more than just scruff.”

On “beard” ambition: “When I walk into a room, often among my first observations is who has a better beard than I do. It’s not that I like to brag about it or gain superiority from it, it’s just always been something that I’m kind of proud of.”

Bearded idol: James Brolin as George Lutz in the original Amityville Horror (1979). “[Brolin’s beard] is handsome, but still a big beard…really well-kept but still bushy. It got me thinking, you don’t really see any movies in which the main character has a big beard, unless it’s like he’s lived in the mountains for a year and now he’s coming back and when he rejoins society he’s going to shave it off.”

Future plans: “I’m either going to back to the Abe Lincoln, or the other thing I’m thinking of – the more radical choice – is growing a Karl Marx beard, a huge beard, which would be a long project.”